“I’m scared, cold, sad, hungry, lonely, thirsty!” — Carolyn Jerz (age 5) My daughter should be asleep, but instead she is awake in her room, and has just offered her usual list of reasons for why she desperately needs parental attention at 10:40pm. This creature was also up at 6:30 this morning. Similar:When she isn't…
Traditionally, many news organizations have applied the rules to only political reporters and editors. The ethic was summed up by Abe Rosenthal, the former New York Times editor, who is reported to have said, “I don’t care if you sleep with elephants as long as you don’t cover the circus.” But with polls showing the…
Solar scientists predict that, by 2020, the sun will be starting into its weakest Schwabe solar cycle of the past two centuries, likely leading to unusually cool conditions on Earth. Beginning to plan for adaptation to such a cool period, one which may continue well beyond one 11-year cycle, as did the Little Ice Age,…
He is full of high sentence, like J. Alfred Prufrock. But beneath it all, one finds a sense of cultural history combining one part idyllic idealization with two parts status anxiety. Gorman only appears to be facing hard questions about the new digital order. Actually he is just echoing debates on “mass society” from five…
Of course he would expect I was in the pay of those whose interests I advanced. Why else would I advance them? Both he and I were in a business in which such shilling was the norm. It was totally reasonable to thus expect that money explained my desire to argue with him about public…
The college-educated humans, all of whom are not allergic to bee-sting venom and possess both cerebral and muscular capacities several orders of magnitude beyond that of the insect, proceeded to retreat in abject fright from its half-millimeter stinger, which, when used, causes a twinge of discomfort followed by mild irritation and kills the bee. According…
All touching — not only fighting or inappropriate touching — is against the rules at Kilmer Middle School in Vienna. Hand-holding, handshakes and high-fives? Banned. The rule has been conveyed to students this way: “NO PHYSICAL CONTACT!!!!!” […] It isn’t as if hug police patrol the Kilmer hallways, Hernandez said. Usually an askance look from…
WATCH out YouTube lovers – the online video service are trialling new technology to prevent people posting unauthorised material they don’t have the copyright for. YouTube will trial the new technology with two of the world’s largest media companies, Time Warner Inc. and Walt Disney Co. —YouTube no longer yours (Sunday Telegraph) Similar:‘WarGames’ and Cybersecurity’s Debt…
Jorn Barger, a Joyce enthusiast whose many creative electronic endeavors include coining the term “weblog,” offers this animated map of Dublin, showing the progress of Leopold Bloom and other characters from the “Wandering Rocks” chapter of Ulysses. The chapter takes place on June 16, which has of late been celebrated as Bloomsday. Last week was…
I designed this site to enable those of us who are having difficulty in solving Adventure / Colossal Cave to work together to solve the game. This is not a hints site, and there is no spoiler space. Information is presented as fully as I can, though the information in the walk through tends to…
Sony Corp. apologized Friday to the Church of England for a violent computer game that features a bloody shootout inside an Anglican cathedral. —Jill Lawless —Sony: Sorry for Cathedral Shootout Game (Brietbart) Similar:Shrek: The Musical (Nov 22-24; Stage Right! Greensburg)Come see me as the Captain of the Guard,…Current_EventsOpen Letter from a Millennial: Quit Telling Us We’re…
The best interviews I’ve had were with people obviously familiar with my work. A great interview with a reporter feels like a natural conversation with a friend you’ve never met. They’ll ask you questions that you haven’t answered a hundred times before, and really dive into your experiences that led to something newsworthy. A good…
—Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? (FOX) I had to guess on one of the history questions, but none of the others were very challenging. I don’t watch the show (we only get one station on our cable-free TV). I just hope the show doesn’t make the smart kids look like freaks. Similar:I love my…
—How children lost the right to roam in four generations (Daily Mail) Interesting article on how over the years parents are holding onto their children more and more tightly. See also Henry Jenkins, “Complete Freedom of Movement: Video Games as Gendered Play Spaces.” Similar:The intelligence coup of the century: For decades, the CIA read the encrypted…
The New York premiere of the film, on Wednesday, was held to support the organisation Reporters Without Borders, which defends journalists against persecution and combats censorship and laws that undermine press freedom. But several journalists covering the premiere objected when Jolie’s lawyer demanded they sign pre-interview contracts limiting exactly what they could and could not…
Negotiators: Ages Nine and Five (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) I have a nine-year-old and a five-year-old who love each other to death, but do occasionally bicker. I tend to be far more impatient with the older child, since he is much more capable of finding something else to entertain himself. I generally remind him that, if he…
“The words we suggest,” says senior editor Steven Kleinedler, “are not meant to be exhaustive but are a benchmark against which graduates and their parents can measure themselves. If you are able to use these words correctly, you are likely to have a superior command of the language.” —100 Words Every High School Graduate Should…
When the steam train roared into history, hissing smoke and howling into the night, it was an awesome beast, adorned in the finest woods, ivory, gold, and intricate inlays, like some Serpent King on a sacred tapestry. The automobiles of the 20’s to 60’s, each was a work of art. The television and radio affected…
News emerged over the weekend that Church authorities have complained to Sony about the depiction of Manchester Cathedral in the game. Some reports have stated that the Church may pursue legal action against the company. But according to Alex Chapman of Campbell Hooper solicitors,”The Church will have an uphill battle in a legal claim against…
“There are days when I watch ‘The Daily Show,’ and I kind of chuckle. There are days when I laugh out loud. There are days when I stand up and point to the TV and say, ‘You’re damn right!’” says Brown, chair of the communications department at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications…